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Talk:Houseboy Who Cried Wolf/@comment-3041875-20170203025625
Overall, a decent episode, but I don’t think I reacted to all the surprises the way you hoped I would. The Good – Let's start with Rena, because I have only good things to say there. Him making the best of his bad situation, and revelling in the fame he can get out of it was very entertaining and fitting to his character. Him being completely oblivious to Ben's suggestion that reliving the situation during interviews could bring-up some bad feelings was quite hilarious, because of course, all Rena cares about is being a star. His scenes with Mary were very good. I liked her calling him out on his BS, wanting him to be honest with her, not just act the part he wants to play to everyone. Him then breaking down was good, and I actually wondered if he was just putting that on to bring Mary back, and play the part she wants him to play as the broken victim to get her attention, but then I remembered he isn't that good an actor. Him worrying over his eye make-up was also a nice touch. Rena continues to have amusing and consistent characterisation. The scene with the butlers all coming clean to each other with their secrets was very good. Joe also had some nice moments of characterisation, as he felt embarrassed working as a butler in front of his former cop buddies and the vision of Joanna faded away, no longer having a purpose. Him commenting how he's cleaning the Little' home after just discovering bodily remains was quite amusing, and being kidnapped by Manny was a good development. Aliza then coming to his rescue was interesting, and while I was briefly worried that she was then going to just spill out everything to Joe, luckily that wasn’t the case. That would have been far too easy and anticlimactic, so fortunately Joe told her about her mother's fake paralysis which was a logical movie to stir some reaction from Aliza, and then they went back to confront the woman herself. Manny then coming back after them with the gun was a good way of keeping tensions up. The riot certainly escalated quickly. I laughed when they said to just kill the whole white neighbour. Not sure if that was the reaction you were going for, but I was entertained nonetheless. Officer Hall just shooting an armed black man in a public street, not asking him to drop the gun, was quite ridiculous but very in theme with the season's story, and I did like Manny's death, as well as Rochelle crying for her son. Good end to set up next episode. Kathryn's solo focus of leaving her family, after the Kristi incident, and being turned away by Eli was decent, suggesting she may further even more in importance during the series. Josh and Juan bumping into Brad and Gregory at the restaurant was a fun development. I'm sure the upcoming wedding will make for some good drama. Ali confronting Liz about how she must be a better person underneath, because she's seen it herself first-hand was all good stuff, and then their kiss was a big surprise. Observations – While, it was shocking, I had no other reaction really to the Ali and Liz kiss, which is why I'm placing it mostly here and not in the good or bad. Mostly, it will depend on where this story goes from here. Obviously, Liz isn't a favourite character of mine, and I haven’t really cared for Ali most of this season either, so that probably partially explains my lack of emotional reaction to them getting together. I think when it comes to watching (or reading) series, entertainment comes from feeling emotions for the characters you're learning about, and that comes from both knowing they're acting in line with how you've came to understand those characters and that they'll be consequence to the plot developments they're going through. But first, I suppose, you need to develop some investment in those characters, and I just haven’t with Liz. I don’t find her relatable, likeable or interesting, so I just can't really care much. Similarly, Ali has been frustratingly rude to Ben this season (seen this episode from her pushing him down in the riot), and I just find it very difficult to care about her now either. I miss it when Ali and Ben's friendship in season 1 was the most touching thing about the series or when Ali's new, positive changes in 201 were the most rootable and likeable part of the show. Ben was an idiot for eating the pie, but considering he allowed Val to take all the evidence he needed to prove his innocence to Ali in 209, that isn't entirely out of character. I assume Juan was lying in the end, since the police wouldn’t really give him a month to get married, but like I said, that should make for some decent drama. The Bad – Josh and Juan's date scene was written incredibly messily. I pointed out three errors to Jo, but they weren't very important mistakes. Far more distracting was the lack of dialogue tags. I have no problem with you guys cutting out the dialogue tags when it suits, but in a scene with four people, it led to a couple of confusions. A couple times I didn’t know who had said something until the next person spoke and responded to it. When Val knocked Ben unconscious, his idiocy aside, I was quite looking forward to an interesting development there. The rape, however, was anticlimactic and underwhelming. Maybe it should be shocking, but we've all seen this story enough times now on shows and in fanfictions that it just isn't. Onto the most disappointing part of the episode, which I'm sorry to say, was the revelation around the Littles' mystery. I was really expecting it to somehow be connected to Silvia, if even just a little, but instead I found myself reading in complete dismay throughout at just how random it all was, and then at the end just went, "Is that it?". Not only was it void of any twists of shocking revelations, it wasn’t connected to any other story or character of the series, or even really Manny's protesting background, which was just about the only thing we knew about going into this revelation, but instead was just some nameless KKK member. It was a completely random and pointless mystery that ended with Joe (the character) and me (the real me) both just shrugging our shoulders to in the end. Best Butler – Rena. He had the most satisfying plot and his characterisation remains consistent and amusing. Joe also had some good characterisation, but his story was hurt by the Littles' disappointing revelations. I also enjoyed Josh's story enough. Overall – The ending scene was very good, and I'm looking forward to getting some answers over the Silvia mystery. I know my reaction to the Littles' mystery wasn’t what you hoped for, but I can only be honest and say what my reactions were at the time of reading.